From the course: Tableau Essential Training

Create column and stacked column charts - Tableau Tutorial

From the course: Tableau Essential Training

Start my 1-month free trial Buy for my team

Create column and stacked column charts

“

- [Instructor] One of the most common ways to summarize categories of data is by using bar charts. A bar chart uses horizontal or vertical bars to show the magnitude of values across a range of categories. Those categories could be business departments or even individual products. Vertical bar charts are also called column charts. And in this movie, I will show you how to create those types of charts. My sample file is 0801 Bar Charts, and you can find it in the chapter eight folder of the exercise files collection. This workbook has a connection to a data source and a blank worksheet. What I'll do first is I will drag order total from the navigation pane to the data area. So there I have my total in a text field, and then if I want to create a column chart or a vertical bar chart, I can drag product category to the columns shelf. So I'll go ahead and put that there. I have a text table, but now I can go over to show me and click that and select the type of visualization I want to create, and in this case, that will be horizontal bars. And note the product category and the sum of order total flipped, so now I have rows as product category and columns of the sum of order total. So I need to change them. I could drag product category up and order total down, but instead, I will go to the toolbar and I will click the swap rows and columns button. I could also press control-W, and there I have my vertical bar chart also called a column chart. I can add additional levels of detail. So for example, if I wanted to go by year, then I could drag order date onto the columns shelf, and I'll put it to the right of product category. Now this changed to a line chart, so instead I will switch to side-by-side bars. And there we go. So I have 2021 to the left in blue and 2022 to the right in orange. I can also change to a stacked bar chart. So if I go back to the show me pane and click stacked bars, then you see I have my two years, and each of them is broken down by product category. Blue is fitness, orange is mineral water, and red is supplements. The type of bar chart that you create, whether vertical or horizontal and stacked or not, depends entirely on your data and the needs of your audience.

Contents